King of Kong

This documentary is very well edited in terms of creating a story; the filmmakers have created a very clear underdog or heroic character (Steve Wiebe) juxtaposed with the villain character (Billy Mitchell) and this is done by very clever cutting between the two, juxtaposing opinions stated by other people as well as cleverly cutting between things they both say and the use of music to amplify this.

The music slowly builds not only the tension but the sense of character that we get from each person - namely by using Wiebe’s own playing to exemplify his hand and eye co-ordination or skill at gaming (as it’s used over his game play of Donkey Kong). There are a variety of 80’s tracks which set the games in their own zeitgeist but there are also some classics such as In the Hall of the Mountain King which set a humorous tone. They are also used to set a sense of pace and connect the viewer to the gamers world, used in conjunction with visuals from the game.

The shots are considered and it is clear that there is heavy editing to ensure that their story comes across to the audience and we are fed a representation of the characters the filmmakers want us to see. There is some use of archive footage that is cut to from the gamers stories and this gives us more of an insight into the competitive gaming world being the same now as it was then. A lot of the gamers are just as serious about the gaming now as they were then and this is shown through this cutting back to the archive footage and the content of the gamers appearing to be just as serious.

I think that the filmmakers have created a lot of the storyline through the editing, juxtaposing the two personalities and being very selective of which parts of interview they use to create these characters, in this sense it is a triumph of documentary film creating a narrative for an audience but I think that the filmmakers have to be careful of misrepresenting their subjects. Having watched this documentary a few times, it appears more constructed each time I view it, and so I find that the filmmakers may alienate the viewer from the subject matter by trying to manipulate their feelings for the central characters. Having said that, on first viewing the film is very enjoyable and holds an audiences attention so it can be viewed as a success.